Speed River’s Anthony Romaniw grabs Olympic berth

EDMONTON — Anthony Romaniw of the Speed River Track and Field Club is headed to Rio de Janeiro.

Rominiw secured a berth on the Canadian Olympic team Sunday with a second-place finish in the men’s 800 metres at the Canadian Track and Field Championships and Rio Trials at Foote Field. As he had attained the qualifying standard a few weeks ago, the runner-up position gave Romaniw a guaranteed spot on the Canadian team for next month’s Olympics at Rio.

Brandon McBride of Windsor won the race at the Trials in a time of one minute, 45.25 seconds while Romaniw was second in 1:46.19 and he edged third-place finisher Robert Heppenstall of Hamilton by just over half a second.

Jared Skeath of the University of Guelph Gryphons was second in the men’s hammer throw. He unleashed a best throw of 58.22 metres while Charles Nguyen of St. Thomas won at 59.70m. Canada will not be represented in hammer throw at the Olympics as no one met the 77.0m standard.

Gryphon graduate Tim Hendry-Gallagher was second in the men’s shot put with a throw of 18.43m. Tim Nedow of Brockville won at 20.28m. Hendry-Gallagher did not or the Olympics as he had not recorded the qualifying standard of 20.50m. Nedow had reached that standard prior to the meet and will be going to the Olympics.

Leah Robinson of Speed River was fifth in the women’s para ambulatory 200m in a time of 32.07 seconds. Larissa Brown of Greely, Ont., won in 27.55.

Rachel Aubry of Speed River placed sixth in the women’s 800m in 2:04.87. Melissa Bishop of Eganville, Ont., won in 1:59.32, a meet record.

U of G graduate Julia Wallace, who trains in Guelph and is an assistant coach with the Gryphons, was ninth in the women’s long jump with a leap of 5.51 metres. Christabel Nettey of Brampton won at 6.62m.

Erika Fiedler of Speed River, a Gryphon graduate, was 11th in the women’s pole vault as she cleared 3.70m. Alysha Newman of Delaware, Ont., cleared a meet record 4.40m to win.